A small nifty thriller making crafty use of New York City locations, Michael Morrissey’s “Boy Wonder” is a gritty directorial debut taking down the superhero genre: what if your protagonist has little more than anger to fuel him? It’s a modest graphic-novel-style conceit, sketched with an economy verging on poverty at times: Sean (Caleb Steinmeyer) is an angry seventeen-year-old who witnessed his mother’s brutal murder, and he’s in the care of an alcoholic father (Bill Sage). After a late-night attack by a drug dealer, Sean’s appetite for vigilantism is stoked. Endangered women? Boy comes to boil. The fight scenes are Morrissey’s strongest work. With James Russo, Tracy Middendorf, Zulay Henao. 96m. (Ray Pride)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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